Word: russia
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...future of political and intellectual freedom in modern Russia may well depend on future Russian perceptions of Western spiritual, economic, and military power, Adam B. Ulam, Gurney professor of History and director of the Russian Research Center, said last night...
Ulam, speaking to an audience of 50 at the Cambridge Forum on "Russia's Failed Revolutions," said concern for Russian strength and glory historically has outweighed the desire for freedom in the minds of most Russians. Ulam added that he finds this concern for Russian strength even in the work of some modern dissidents...
Ulam denied that communism was exclusively or even largely responsible for Russia's present power. Russia, he said, had been industrializing at the same rate as America before the 1917 revolution, even though Russia had had a much later start in the industrial development. "Under any regime short of complete anarchy," Russia would be at about the same level it is at right now, he said. "Russian communism has achieved a lot," he said, "simply in overcoming its own excesses and crimes...
...writing shows all the anguish of a man who "loves his country and hates his government." Ulam said "he should be listened to, but I don't think that he is primarily a political figure. Ulam pointed out that even Solzhenitsyn recognized the impossibility of "instant democracy" in Russia, and that the writer's feelings towards the West were "ambivalent...
...satirical The Nose (1928), based on a story by Gogol - has had a checkered history. Completed in 1932, hailed as a major achievement at its premiere in 1934, condemned by Stalin in 1936 and sanitized 20 years later as Katerina Ismailova, the opera electrified its first audiences in both Russia and the West with its sexual frankness. One early critic, referring to the lascivious trombone slides that accompany the furious lovemaking of Katerina and Sergei in Act I, called the music "pornophony." But the opera proved popular, with 83 performances in Leningrad and 97 in Moscow before it offended...